Rigor is not a substitute for imagination.

You need to take your gut feeling as an important data point, but then you have to consciously and deliberately evaluate it, to see if it makes sense in this context.

My research suggests that when people get rebuffed they become frustrated and angry, but they would do better to become curious about the reason for the rejection. I also found that people assume that others are like them, operating under the same knowledge, beliefs, constraints and priorities. This mirror assumption makes it easier to speculate about why others act in the way they do, but sometimes the mirror assumption is wrong.

Many change initiatives are poorly thought out, and rolled out prematurely. Others are genuinely good ideas but the proponents underestimate the amount of time needed to make the change. And, I agree, true change usually requires people giving something up and so resistance is pretty well guaranteed for any meaningful change.

You shouldn't trust the judgments of stock brokers picking individual stocks.

Many business intuitions and expertise are going to be valuable; they are telling you something useful, and you want to take advantage of them.

By the time executives get to high levels, they are good at making others feel confident in their judgment, even if there's no strong basis for the judgment.